Designing Teaching and Learning Essay 1.

It is recognised that effective teaching involves planning. When we plan a lesson as

teachers we decide what to teach and how to teach it.

Part A:
Teaching is a multi-faceted profession with the differing facets coalescing to create a

nebulous cloud of factors and influences that affect the way that teachers teach. Undoubtedly

the most important of these factors is planning. Planning effects almost all other aspects of

teaching, and is the crux of succeeding in all areas of the profession. This is part of the

dichotomy of effective teaching, which is the divide between off the cuff teaching that

follows the flow of the class, and proper planning and scaffolding to facilitate learning for all

of the students. Drawing on current academic literature this essay will showcase the four

different factors that allow a teacher to shift towards becoming a more effective planner and

in turn a more effective teacher, they include the syllabus, the Australian Professional

Standards for Teachers, Diverse student learning needs and finally previous assessment data.

Then after an analysis of the four factors and how teachers decisions are influenced by them,

the second part will look at how these factors can affect the way they inform the lesson plan

and how it can influence or decision of what to include.

The Board of Studies Teaching & Educational Standards, abbreviated to BOSTES, is the

statutory governing body of education in New South Wales, they create syllabi that contains

all of the key skills, outcomes and competencies that are expected of a student undertaking

and succeeding the class. To judicially make decisions on what to include when creating a

lesson plan it is important to understand the syllabus as well as the Australian Professional

Standards for Teachers. Standards set by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School
Learning or the AITSL. These seven standards represent the expectations of the schooling

systems placed upon the teachers and include creating and maintain positive and safe learning

environments as well as implementing planned and effective teaching and learning (AITLS,

2011). This influences planning and decisions on what to teach. Those previous factors come

from outside the school environment, the next two are from within the teachers own school

environment. They are catering to the diverse learning needs of each individual student, as

well as analysing and incorporating previous assessment data into the planning of lessons.

Syllabus

BOSTES states that the syllabuses identify the knowledge, understand, skills, values and

attitudes that students are expected to develop in each learning area (2012). The syllabus is a

breakdown of all of the different outcomes and directs the flow and the rate of knowledge

learning. Each syllabus should have guiding statements of philosophy, aims, recognition of

distinctive learner cohorts and their needs, brief statements of essential expected learnings,

related standards, and some details of approaches to assessment. (OBrian, Mills, & Cohen,

2009; Queensland Studies Authority, 2008). They provide teachers with a rationale and

outline of the school subject in question, an overview and specification of preferred expected

stuff to be taught and learned. (Luke, Weir, & Woods, 2008). The syllabus is an important

factor in decisive effective teaching because it controls our decisions. The syllabus is the

foundation for all decision on what to plan for. It gives the teacher a starting point for their

lessons and what to plan around. This is why its considered the most important factor in

effective planning. It is the foundation upon which all of the lessons are planned and based

upon. Without proper explicit knowledge of the syllabus, it would be near impossible to plan
lessons correctly and effectively and adhere to the Australian Professional Standards for

Teachers

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

The previously mentioned AITSL is the body dedicated to regulating the Australian

Professional Standards for Teachers. The openly accessible nature of these standards mean

that the expectations of the school and the government are completely transparent and not

hidden from public scrutiny. They exist to scaffold teachers on how they are expected to

teach and how they are to understand their profession, with them putting forth standards such

as 2: Know the content and how to teach it. 3: Plan for and implement effect teaching and

learning. 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments (Australian

Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011) to pigeonhole and create a focal point

for teachers to focus on. The standards are not without their drawbacks though as Allard and

Doecke tell us in their article Professional Knowledge and standards-based reforms: learning

from the experiences of early career teachers The AITSL professional standards are being

imposed on the profession, artificially constructing the work of teachers as comprising a set

of discrete domains that fail to do justice to their professional practise (Allard & Doecke,

2014). So while the Standards may be a positive influence on our planning and decisions as a

teacher, due to the fact that it gives us a guideline for how we are expected to teach, which is

a large consideration given how public of a profession teaching is. They dont accurately

reflect the way that teaching operates and how it is performed in its actual setting as a series

of social-relationships (Allard & Doecke, 2014). Therefore while it is important to

understand the Standards when planning and deciding what to include in lessons, the

standards not necessarily be followed ultra-closely.

Diverse Student Learning Needs

Now that we have what teachers are meant to teach (the syllabus) and how they are meant to

teach it (the standards), you are left with the final two factors that directly affect each

individual teacher. The first is the Diverse Student Learning Needs. It is not an uncommon

fact to the majority of people that Australia as society is becoming more and more diverse.

And with a wider array of diversity found within the classroom, such as lower socio-

economic students, international students, disabled students, and possibly even first-

generation students, makes it intrinsically harder for a teacher to cater to all of the individual

students. With diversity comes the need to alter patterns of behaviour and the delivery of

academic and non-academic support. Treating students as a homogenous group will not

deliver the specific support that some students require (Morgan, 2008) is a clear summation

of the negative influence that the diverse student learning needs has on a teacher while they

are planning their lesson. This problem is fixed by a teacher effectively scaffolding the lesson

plan both upwards for the brighter students, and lower for the students who need more

support and extra-help.

Previous Assessment Data

The usage of previous assessment data is the final factor that influences teachers decisions

while planning. Previous assessment data is another strong influence on lesson planning

because it informs the teacher as to how all of the students, both as a group and as individuals

are going in regards to understanding the concepts and required knowledge. By collecting and

collating assessment data from all of the students, it provides a clear road-map of what you

have covered, if it needs to be revisited and if any of the assessments did, or did not work.
The most important part of using assessment data is to realise that it is not a measure of

whether or not your students are capable or not, but to inform help you reflect on your own

teaching and learning, and that once teachers had this kind of information, they would be

able to act on it in ways that enhanced student learning (Timperley, 2009). Assessment data

is a major factor in the way we decide to plan our lessons because it informs the teacher as to

the position of class within the syllabus and whether or not we are performing to the National

Standards and if we are catering to all of the diverse student learning needs. And if not, what

we have to change in our planning to become a more effective teacher.

Part B: Stage 5 History Lesson Plan Analysis.

The Syllabus

The K-10 History Syllabus splits Stage 5 into two overviews and a choice of six Depth

Studies, four being optional and two being mandatory. This lesson focuses on Core Study 3

Australians at War (World Wars I and II). The influence of the Syllabus on the lesson plan

is explicitly stated, as it has an entire section called Syllabus Outcomes that contain

outcomes HT5-5 identifies and evaluates the usefulness of sources in the historical inquiry

process and HT5-10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written, visual and digital forms to

communicate effectively about the past for different audiences (92) respectfully. This lesson

focusing on Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, announcing Australias involvement in WWII

is considerably based in both the outcomes and the content expected to be taught from the

syllabus. The student outcomes and the lesson aim are also points synthesised from the

Syllabus so the influence from the syllabus is extensive in this lesson plan, as it has given the

lesson plan a solid basis for what the lesson has to achieve and what is expected. The only

syllabus related content that could be included to improve the lesson plan would be to

specifically link what is being learned in class to one of the required content outcomes,

instead of just generalising the depth study.

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

This lesson plan immediately demonstrates evidence of 5 distinct teaching standards from the

Australian Professional Standards, these are:

2.1 Content and Teaching Strategies of the teaching area.

2.6 Information Communication and Technology (ICT).

3.2 Plan, Structure and sequence learning programs.

3.4 Select and uses resources

3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs.

This is very positive for the lesson plan as it very quickly shows that the teacher who created

this had the Standards in mind while creating the certain sub-headings and sections. As

Standard 3.4 gets its own heading with Resources that lists the resources used in the lesson,

combining with 2.6 with the addition of an e-resource in the lesson plan. Standard 2.1 is a

follow on from the last section with the content and teaching strategies being taken straight

from the syllabus meaning that 2.1 is an expected follow-on from that. Standards 3.4 and 3.6

make up the majority of the lesson plan, with the entire lesson planned and sequenced down

to the minute, along with the expected follow up lesson for the next time the class is in

session. With 3.6 having its own section dedicated to collecting assessment or classroom data

in order to refine and improve upon the lesson plan. This lesson plan does a strong job at

trying to include a wide array of the Standards as possible in one 40-minute lesson plan.

Diverse Student Learning Needs

This is where the lesson plan fails. Within this lesson plan, there is without a doubt, no

evidence of scaffolding or catering for individual student needs. The lesson plan itself is

pretty bare and only contains two activities during the whole period. While the activities

themselves are pretty lacklustre and seem to be pretty easy, this is no expressed attempt to

make it harder for the better students and easier for those that need more support. Maybe this

is due to the very empty feeling of the lesson plan, and the fact that some of it is meant to be

filled in by the teacher using it, with the empty headings such as Student previous

knowledge / skills / attributes and Evaluation. Does the diverse learning needs of each

individual student influence the lesson plan as it is on the page? No. Whether or not that is
because the writer deemed the activity in the lesson plan to be easy enough for everyone, or

because it is meant to be a fill-in-the-blanks where you are expected to scaffold it yourself

is not apparent either. This plan would be greatly benefitted by including under the section of

the activity, possible extra activities and even ways to make it slight less-challenging.

Assessment Data

This is, again, another spot where the lesson plan starts to fail, but only because of its design.

There are indeed, sections of the lesson plans that are meant to be filled in by each individual

teacher that uses the lesson plan with their own assessment data. While it does have a section

for evaluation at the end that can potentially be used for collecting data as to how the students

went with the exercise. In addition to this, there is also no section detailing what they should

have covered before this lesson, as it does not stat what this lesson is following on from the

previous week. This lesson seems to exist in a vacuums in regards to where it is on the scope

and sequence. There is little influence of previous assessment data evident in this lesson plan.

While there are the beginnings of its usage and collection present, it is not as fleshed-out as it

should be.

Conclusion

In order to become a decisive and effective teacher, you first have to undertake steps to

become an effective planner. As discussed during this text, there are 4 key factors that all

have a large role in our decisions about our lesson plans. In order to make it an effective

lesson plan it has to show influences from, and contain elements from the four key areas. If it

does not contain these elements and influences, it ends up looking like the lesson plan

analysed earlier, empty and not fully conceptualised and constructed. To plan lessons
effectively, it is imperative that teachers embrace the syllabus, the Professional Standards,

previous assessment data and diverse student needs because it will elevate their planning of

their lessons, and therefore elevate their teaching and their teaching ability.
Reference List

Allard, A., & Doecke, B. (2014). Professional knowledge and standards-based reforms:

Learning from the experiences of early career teachers. English Teaching, 13(1), 39-

n/a. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1619018079?accountid=36155

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2014) retrieved March 18, 2015,

from http://www.aitsl.edu.au

Boudett, K., Murnane, R., City, E., & Moody, L. (2005). Teaching Educators How to Use

Student Assessment Data to Improve Instruction. The Phi Delta Kappan, 86(9), 700-

706.

Harnish, R., & Bridges, J. (2011). Effect of syllabus tone: Students perceptions of instructor

and course. Social Psychology of Education, 14(3), 319-330.

Herrmann, M. (2014). Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to

Improve Teaching and Learning. School Administrator, 71(6), 38-39.

Morgan, M. (2013). Supporting student diversity in higher education : A practical guide.

New York: Routledge

NSW Syllabus for the Australian curriculum: History K-10 Syllabus (2012) Sydney,

Australia: Board of Studies NSW

OBrian, J.G., Millis, B.J., Cohen, M.W. (2009) The course syllabus: A learning-centred

approach (2ndEd.) San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Parents Guide to the new NSW K-10 syllabuses (2012) Sydney, Australia: Board of Studies

NSW

Queensland Studies Authority (2008) Development of a set of principles to guide a p-12

syllabus framework. Retrieved from

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/publications/qsa_p12_principles_dev_ppr.pdf

Timperley, H. (2009, July). Using assessment data for improving teaching practice. In From

2009-ACER Research Conference series